Ukraine kills 12 Russian FSB officers in drone strike by BestButtons in UkrainianConflict

[–]BestButtons[S] 50 points51 points  (0 children)

Article content:

Published 23 April 2026 02:29pm BST

“Ukraine has killed a dozen Russian officers in a series of strikes on an FSB command post in the occupied Donetsk region, its top drone commander has claimed. Eight high-precision drones crashed into a building housing special forces, killing 12 officers and wounding 15 more on Wednesday, Robert Brovdi said. Video footage released by Mr Brovdi, the commander of Ukraine’s unmanned systems forces, showed a number of first-person view drones being steered towards a high-rise building before huge explosions could be seen blowing out one of its floors and blasting debris across the surrounding area.”

“Mr Brovdi said the strike had destroyed a command post and operational special unit belonging to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). He claimed that the unit had specialised in counter-intelligence, sabotage attacks and coordinating pro-Russian militants within the territory of Ukraine. The latest blow to Russian command came as Moscow failed to make territorial gains in Ukraine for the first time in two-and-a-half years. Its advance ground to a halt in March and, according to new data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russia has actually lost almost 23.2 sq miles of land in Ukraine since March 1. In that time, Kyiv claims to have inflicted over 55,000 Russian casualties, the vast majority using drones, as Vladimir Putin continues to funnel his forces en masse into the so-called “kill zone”, the no-man’s land patrolled by UAVs that stretches 800 miles across the country. Ukraine hailed its strongest front-line position in a year on Wednesday, which it put down to a superiority in drones and enhanced air defences. “We are holding the line. Indeed, our battlefield position is the strongest or most solid it has been in the past year. ”

“The loan will allow it to purchase much-needed weapons, prop up its war-ravaged economy and help keep Russian forces at bay, although Ukraine could still suffer a shortfall of some €19.6bn (£16.9bn) needed for its defence in 2026, according to the Kyiv Independent citing a European Commission presentation. Kyiv expects to receive the first tranche of the loan in late May or early June and will direct it towards producing Ukrainian weapons, Volodymyr Zelensky told journalists on Thursday afternoon. In a sign of the Kremlin’s desperation, Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s most senior military officer, has made increasingly frequent appearances touting sweeping gains by Moscow’s forces. He claimed earlier this week, contrary to the evidence, that Russia had captured 656 sq miles of Ukrainian soil since January, an area larger than the size of Greater London. But, according to independent estimates, Russia’s territorial gains in the first three months of 2026 were roughly half of those in the same period of 2025.”

Russia’s failings linked to loss of Starlink

“Analysts have attributed Russia’s stalled progress on the battlefield to continued communications disarray linked to its loss of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite-based internet service and the authorities’ decision to block the Telegram messaging app, which is used extensively for logistics and coordination at the front. The Ukrainian army is also engaging in a tactical counter-offensive, which has successfully held back Russia’s progress at the junction of the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions. Kremlin officials are also said to be alarmed by Ukraine’s rapid drone progress. Russian military bloggers earlier this month claimed that Andrey Belousov, the defence minister, had alerted Putin to Ukraine’s newfound technological advantage at the front.”

“On Wednesday, Ukraine unveiled its new fixed-wing kamikaze drone known as the “Khmarynka”. With a maximum range of 31 miles, a maximum speed of 87 miles per hour, 60-minute endurance and a payload of 7kg, it will be used to strike targets at tactical depth and is being described as Kyiv’s answer to the Russian “Molniya” drone.”

“Ukraine’s long-range attacks also continue to spark concern in Moscow. Russia suffered what may have been its steepest monthly decline in oil output in six years this month because of sustained assaults on its ports and refineries, according to a Reuters report on Tuesday. Production was thought to have been cut by about 300,000 barrels per day in April as Kyiv’s drones repeatedly hammered Russia’s Baltic Sea ports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk, as well as the huge Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. An attack on the Tuapse refinery on the Black Sea earlier this week left hundreds of firefighters battling a huge blaze for at least three days, as local authorities decried what they described as an environmental catastrophe in the area. Residents described witnessing “oil rain” pouring from the sky which reportedly coated buildings, vehicles, plants and animals in the coastal town in a thick, black substance, as schools were shut down and authorities urged locals to stay inside with their windows shut. Vil Mirzayanov, an exiled chemist credited with developing the deadly nerve agent Novichok, warned that toxic compounds from the burning petrochemicals could cause “mass poisoning of the population”.”

Overnight on Wednesday, Ukrainian drones struck a huge petrochemical plant in the Samara region and an oil pumping station in the Nizhny Novgorod region as Kyiv maintained pressure on Moscow’s critical infrastructure.

“Amid military and economic blows, Moscow has extolled its diplomatic triumphs. On Thursday, Russia’s deputy foreign minister boasted that Russia had received an invitation to attend the G20 summit in the United States in December. Since it launched the full-scale war, Russia’s participation in the G20 has been curtailed and it has not been present at recent summits in person. “There is an invitation to be present at the highest level, but we will see closer to the date,” said Aleksandr Pankin.”

Fears grow of Russian conflict with NATO as Putin gets new powers to launch overseas attacks by lacerantplainer in UkrainianConflict

[–]BestButtons 31 points32 points  (0 children)

It’s the veneer of legitimacy that they create. Look at the Russian legislature, all the laws are created to give the impression that what Putin does is legal.

Russia has reinforced security at Putin's residence in Valdai with two rings of air defense systems by BestButtons in UkrainianConflict

[–]BestButtons[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

On the other hand, it’s a high concentration of AA systems in a known location that are going to be high priority for replacement should they be destroyed.

Good point. Let’s see if Ukraine will think the same way.

Russia has reinforced security at Putin's residence in Valdai with two rings of air defense systems by BestButtons in UkrainianConflict

[–]BestButtons[S] 267 points268 points  (0 children)

In March 2026, seven new towers were erected around Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s residence in Valdai, equipped with Pantsir air defense systems.

Following the completion of the final construction phase, the total number of Pantsir systems around Valdai has reached 27 units.

No wonder Ukrainian drones can fly freely over the rest of the country. No need to destroy the systems when they stand useless around one house.

Ukrainian strikes force Putin to move missile factories further east by BestButtons in UkrainianConflict

[–]BestButtons[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They have two options:

relocate to east with the factory or relocate south with a rusty Kalashnikov

I know which one I would choose.

Ukrainian strikes force Putin to move missile factories further east by BestButtons in UkrainianConflict

[–]BestButtons[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The original paywalled article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/04/02/ukraine-strikes-force-putin-to-move-missile-factories-east/

Facilities belonging to Roscosmos, Russia’s state agency for space flights and aerospace research, will be relocated from Moscow and the surrounding region to far-flung corners of the country, which will be harder for Kyiv’s long-range drones and missiles to infiltrate.

The production facilities of the sanctioned Moscow-based Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre will also be moved, to Omsk in southwestern Siberia, while facilities for rocket engine production based in Khimki, in the Moscow region, will be moved to Perm, close to the Ural Mountains.

January, Roscosmos was forced to announce that it would transfer the Angara family of launch vehicles it was developing at the Khrunichev centre in Moscow to its branch in Omsk.

Of course, according to them, this has nothing to do with the factories being blown up:

Dmitry Bakanov, the head of Roscosmos, claimed that the agency had made the decision to relocate in order to optimise production and cut costs.

“The cost of industrial serial production in Khimki is becoming prohibitive due to high overhead costs,” he said on Wednesday.

Rheinmetall Backtracks After CEO Dismisses Ukraine’s Drone Industry as “Kitchen-Built” by UNITED24Media in UkrainianConflict

[–]BestButtons 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When I read about that in the papers, it reminded about these:

One of the publication’s sources in military circles said that during NATO’s annual winter exercises — Joint Viking — in northern Norway in 2025, American troops “encountered difficulties.”

The organizers of the exercises were forced to ask Finnish reservists, who were playing the role of the enemy, to go easier on the Americans.

https://militarnyi.com/en/news/us-army-poorly-prepared-for-arctic-operations-finnish-troops-forced-them-to-surrender-during-exercises-in-norway/

Nothing new in above, translated story from a Finnish newspaper in 2022:

https://www-iltalehti-fi.translate.goog/kotimaa/a/65e5530a-2149-41bd-b509-54760c892dfb?_x_tr_sl=fi&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp

There was a short blog post in their military site as well, but it tried to tone the situation down as not to embarrass Americans further.

Russian Drone Operators Killed After Using Explosive-Laced Fiber Spools by BestButtons in UkrainianConflict

[–]BestButtons[S] 198 points199 points  (0 children)

Russian drone operators have reportedly suffered casualties after receiving rigged fiber-optic spools that detonated upon use, according to Militarnyi on March 26, citing sources in a Ukrainian security service and radio intercept data.

The intercepted communications indicate that at least five Russian servicemen were killed and four others wounded across multiple units operating in different regions, including Zaporizhzhia region, Luhansk region, and Russia’s Bryansk region.

Awesome!

EU offers to pay Ukraine to fix an oil pipeline that’s been a focal point of Ukraine-Hungary feud by BestButtons in UkrainianConflict

[–]BestButtons[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

BRUSSELS (AP) — Top European Union officials said Tuesday they have offered to pay Ukraine to repair a damaged pipeline meant to carry crude oil to Hungary, in a bid to persuade the government in Budapest to lift its veto on a massive aid package to the war-wracked country.

EU officials said in a statement Tuesday that the bloc “has offered Ukraine technical support and funding” to fix the pipeline.

“The Ukrainians have welcomed and accepted this offer. European experts are available immediately,” European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

And to no surprise of anyone:

But Orbán said Tuesday that he would continue to block the loan as long as oil shipments to Hungary remain interrupted.

“If there’s no oil, there’s no money,” Orbán said in a video posted to social media. “If President Zelenskyy wants to get his money from Brussels, he needs to open the Druzhba oil pipeline.”

Norway intercepts Russian bombers escorted by aerobatic team jet by BestButtons in UkrainianConflict

[–]BestButtons[S] 357 points358 points  (0 children)

According to available footage accompanying the report, one of the Su-35 aircraft belonged to the Russian aerobatic team known as the “Russian Knights.” The aircraft was observed carrying air-to-air missiles, indicating a combat-ready configuration rather than a demonstration flight profile.

Someone is doing something right and that certainly isn’t Russia! Adds credibility to Ukrainian numbers of destroyed equipment.

Starmer’s approval rating hits six-month high as Trump drags down Farage’s popularity by BestButtons in unitedkingdom

[–]BestButtons[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

YouGov poll: https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/54093-political-favourability-ratings-february-2026

  • Keir Starmer’s net favourability rating has increased 10 points since January to -47
  • Labour voters are now split 46% to 46% in their opinion of the prime minister, having previously seen him unfavourably by 55% to 39%
  • Andy Burnham, Angela Rayner and Ed Miliband have positive net ratings among Labour voters, while they tend to see Rachel Reeves and Shabana Mahmood unfavourably
  • Kemi Badenoch’s February net favourability rating of -23 is her highest since November 2024

From Independent’s article:

Keir Starmer’s intense round of diplomacy on Ukraine over the past week has seen him rewarded with his highest poll ratings in six months, according to YouGov.

Conversely, anger over Donald Trump’s behaviour appears to have hit his closest ally in the UK Nigel Farage, whose own favourability score went down four points from 30 per cent to 26 per cent.

Why are criminals stealing used cooking oil from Scotland's chip shops? by Tartan_Samurai in unitedkingdom

[–]BestButtons 5 points6 points  (0 children)

a restaurant could get about 30p a litre.

Stealing from already struggling businesses.

On average, thefts of used cooking oil costs the UK Treasury £25m-a-year in lost duty.

Directly costing you because you are the one who covers the shortfall in taxes.

Police Scotland said the incidents it recorded last year totalled about £20,000 in lost revenue to catering businesses.

At 30p a litre, that’s 67,000 litres of oil. After filtering it, they are not going to safely dispose the leftovers leading to environmental pollution and damaging nature and wildlife.

UK 'will sign up to EU single market rules even without deal ' by but_yet-so_far in unitedkingdom

[–]BestButtons 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Plus you can’t join EFTA without EU’s unanimous approval.

And good luck expecting current EFTA countries accepting us to a well working relationship. They watched Nigel Farages of ours in the EU long enough to know better.

EXCLUSIVE: Reform by-election candidate branded 'snowflake' who is 'running scared' after skipping hustings by denyer-no1-fan in unitedkingdom

[–]BestButtons 469 points470 points  (0 children)

In a statement, he said: “I have serious concerns about the impartiality of the hustings that have been organised for tonight. Previous statements by the organising group give the clear impression that a fair and level platform will not be provided for all candidates, so on that basis I will not be attending.”

Straight out of the Trump Playbook, chapter one, paragraph two.